The Under 21 coach, engaged in the qualifications of the European Championship, of category, asks the players to use only one eye. An experiment that had already implemented with the clubs: “I want them to look at the field in a different way”
They looked like many pirates in a shirt and shorts, they were the blue. Also amazed by the novelty, but amused, and very concentrated, in the unprecedented “blindfold” training on Monday in Bagno di Romagna. They resembled Nick Fury of the Avengers, to Jena Plissken by 1997: Escape from New York. All in the field with a closed eye, for some the right, for others the accident, so much then the bandage changes side. An exercise not new in the teams of Silvio Baldini, with the primary objective of recovering physical fatigue with the strength of the mind. The new CT is changing everything. In his own way. And that’s why Buffon and Gravina chose him and gave him white paper.
Strength of the mind
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It would be easy to catalog certain systems in the “oddities” category. Easy and unfair. Baldini wants to convey his unconventional philosophy that brought results to Palermo and Pescara, and certainly not for bandaged training. But this is also a chapter of the revolution, to be evaluated without superficiality. If the boys trained six months in a row like this, they would improve their vision. An occasional session, as in the case of the Under, offers different results. It serves to make the boys work as if they had a serious disability: he forces them to strive and focus more, improving speed of execution and reflections, adapting to react in difficulty situations. A ruthless concentration that reduces tiredness and physical limits in the game. The head to help the legs.
Exercise in three phases
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Baldini did it at Catania, Palermo, Pescara. Short sessions, maximum twenty minutes, divided into three phases. The first by closing the dominant eye, the one connected to the hand or to the most used leg, the second tapping the other eye, the third without a bandage. A practice also used in boxing. “I want to push the guys to look at the field not only with my eyes, but with the mind and with the body,” said the CT in the first meeting of September, in Tirrenia. Coincidentally, a seaside resort. Why not take advantage then? The defaulting work was done in the water: the team arrived on the beach, surrounded by the curious eyes of the swimmers, and worked between water and sand.
Double rooms by role
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An experience that cannot be repeated in winter, but there is no shortage of other news. Starting from the hotel accommodation. Goodbye single rooms and certainly not to save. Baldini asked Antognoni, accompanying manager: “How did you sleep in Spain, Giancarlo?”. Discounted question for those who have not forgotten the silent couple Zoff-Scirea, or dawn sleepless who did not sleep gently: now double rooms, with players of the same role together to talk about even technical issues, and a triple for goalkeepers. Baldini asks to speak, indeed invites the players to explain the exercises to the new arrivals: a communication chain to cement the group. With a moment of fixed relaxation, an evening free from the nutritionists’ tables, without exaggerating: the other evening the Under 21 dined on a farm not far from the hotel, in September in a restaurant in Forte dei Marmi.
Farewell Smartphone
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Then, however, you go to the field, and a fixed rule is that the mobile phone does not enter the locker room: it remains in the room or goes to a basket, off, until the last exercise carried out with the vice barzagli, Nardini, assistant and friend, the son Mattia and Labricciola, also their collaborators, the goalkeeper coach Pardini, the Azzone Athletic trainer. One day he will invite them all to the countryside, in Carrara, where he lives, to train them to look for mushrooms. The “blindfolded” European also passes from here.
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